


Kings and Emperors

by misura



Category: Need for Speed (Movie 2014)
Genre: M/M, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2794445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: When Dino Met Tobey, a (Kind of) Love Story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the fic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aliassmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliassmith/gifts).



The thing about Tobey Marshall is: he lacks ambition.

Oh, sure, you can put him behind a wheel and see him go; he's hungry enough for a win _there_ , but then when he gets out, win or lose, he's back to the same old Tobey.

No pride, no ambition, no desire to get anywhere in life other than where he is right now.

Dino figures maybe it's all just a matter of 'opposites attract', really.

 

"I'm going to take Anita and get the hell out of here," Dino tells him, twelve years, three months and one day from the now.

He's not even sure where this shit with Anita's come from. She's Pete's sister - nice-looking enough girl, not that Dino's ever bothered to look at her more than twice, what with his being gay and apparently stupidly fixated on Tobey.

She's hardly the kind of person he wants to bend over the hood of his car and fuck until the only name she remembers is his.

"Oh," says Tobey. His expression is completely blank.

"Yeah," Dino says, waiting. If hanging around Tobey's taught him one thing, he supposes it should be patience.

"Well." Tobey turns his face, and Dino wants to believe that that's why he misses it; that Tobey knows Dino's watching him and that this is Tobey's way of hiding his reaction.

In reality, it's probably just what it seems, though: Tobey looking around for his pants.

"Good luck with that, I guess," Tobey says, and his face gives away nothing at all.

Dino wants to grab him and kiss him until there's at least _something_ showing on there, but he's not that much of a dick; he just watches Tobey get dressed and leave, and tries not to feel like he's just been turned down harder than he's ever been turned down in his life.

 

In his head, what Tobey was going to say is: _why Anita? take me instead_.

In his head, what Dino would have said next is: _yes_.

 

When Dino wins the De Lion, he sends Tobey a quick text:

_just won De Lion. wish you were here._

It's terribly sentimental, so Dino hits Send quickly, before he can change his mind. Before he can get sensible about this, or as sensible as anyone can be who's still stupidly hung up on some stupid guy they haven't seen for years and years.

Tobey texts him back, barely five minutes later. A short text, that says everything and nothing at all:

_congratulations. that's a big win._

 

Dino spends ten years watching his rear view mirror. Waiting.

People tell him he's good, and Dino knows they're not wrong. He also knows Tobey is better, _would be_ better, if only he was a little bit more hungry for it.

Dino wonders if Tobey's dating anyone, if Tobey's letting anyone put his or her hands on him the way he let Dino. (If there's anyone, it's probably a girl. Tobey doesn't like to rock the boat.)

Via via, he hears Marshall Motors is having some financial trouble. It's not a creepy stalker-ish thing, really; keeping an eye on your competition is just good sense, in this business. Besides, Pete's his brother-in-law now, and Pete's part of Tobey's crew.

 

For the first time in ten years, he looks at Mount Kizco again. A kingdom of small minds, small ambitions, small drivers. And Tobey Marshall, its reigning king.

Dino thinks that, really, coming home shouldn't feel like getting hit in the stomach.

 

"Joe thinks your turtleneck is stupid," Tobey says.

Dino shrugs. "And what do _you_ think?"

"I think it was probably expensive." Tobey doesn't smile.

"You'd be right."

Tobey nods, once. "We'll do a good job with your car."

"I know." Charity isn't in Dino's nature. He might have considered half a million a fair price to buy Tobey, maybe, but probably not. Tobey's not for sale, anyway, and Dino's come to realize that part of what drew, draws, will always draw him to Tobey is the way nothing ever seems to touch Tobey.

"Yeah," Tobey says, half-turned away already.

Dino considers letting him go. Letting _everything_ go. Let bygones be bygones; take the cash and split. It's what Tobey's planning on doing, clearly.

"Look, Tobey, I - " Dino doesn't beg. It's no more a part of his character than charity is.

"I'll see you around," Tobey says, cutting him off.

It's not much of a promise, but Dino figures he'll take it. "All right."

 

Watching Tobey coax 230 and more out of the Mustang is better than sex.

Dino wants to drag him out of the car and kiss him breathless, erase all traces of Tobey ever having been anyone else's but his.

He's got a sale to make, though, to say nothing of a point.

_Just what the_ hell _is your deal, Tobey? I wait ten_ fucking _years for you to start hauling your ass out of here, and when you finally do, it's only to make me look bad?_.

From anyone else, Dino'd be taking it personal; a pointed insult. A loud and clear challenge. A gloved slap in the face.

This is Tobey, though; he doesn't really go in for that sort of thing. He's not Dino.

He's just the puzzle Dino can never seem to solve, the puzzle Dino can't seem to stop wanting, _needing_ to solve.

 

Dino knows cars; he knows that what happens to Pete is a one-in-a-million chance gone wrong.

He knows, and Tobey knows, that if he'd gone back, if he'd stopped, it wouldn't have changed anything.

Except that maybe Dino'd have been standing there on that bridge, with Tobey. He might have faked a certain grief, Dino thinks; a certain regret. Tobey'd probably have yelled at him a bit.

Dino'd have taken it, let Tobey slobber all over his expensive turtleneck sweater, after.

Two-point-seven million is a lot of money; enough to be able to afford one hell of a lawyer.

They might have been okay, more or less - and what's two years in prison, really, after ten years of barely more than a short text every now and then?

Just the end of all of his dreams, probably; the death of all of his ambitions.

Not even Tobey's worth that, Dino tells himself, as he tries to make his fingers find the right buttons on his cellphone. Nothing and nobody's worth that.

 

Dino tries to go and see Tobey in prison five times.

The fifth time, he actually makes it all the way to the prison.

 

Two years is a lot of time to think. To look at a puzzle from all possible angles.

Dino considers Tobey, and his lack of ambition, and puts everything he remembers from the Tobey he kissed in the locker room next to the Tobey who outraced him in a Koenigsegg.

What Tobey needs, Dino thinks, is some sort of pressure. Some sort of _reason_ , other than a desire for success, or money, or fame.

Tobey doesn't have any use for success or money or fame; he just wants to be, well, Tobey.

Dino can't decide if Tobey's dream is as small as his former kingdom, or if it's actually bigger than anything Dino's ever dared to dream of, big enough to fill the sky.

Maybe it's a little bit of both. (It wouldn't be Tobey if it was easy, or made any sense.)

 

Tobey's never been the one to press Dino against a wall.

Before, it always used to be the other way around.

Dino likes the change, the shift in their positions. It proves that Tobey can change, that Tobey can be _made_ to change. By Dino.

"Good to see nobody'll be showing up to claim my Elemento," he says. "You know, I'm rather attached to that car."

"Drive it in the De Lion," Tobey says. "I'll take it off your hands."

Dino laughs. What he wants to say is _I know_.

 

The De Lion is, not to put too fine a word on it, a clusterfuck.

The Elemento flips, and Dino thinks that there's a poetic justice in it all, really, before he recalls that no, fuck that, he never actually _meant_ for Pete's car to flip; it was just piss-poor luck.

So.

He's glad it was just him and Tobey for a while there; the cream of the crop. The king of Mount Kizco, and the one who got away (except not really, in the end).

 

"Why keep the Agera around?" Tobey asks. He looks mostly unharmed.

Dino's gotten off with just a few scrapes and bruises; nothing too serious. "Why do you think?"

"Because some people just don't think they'll ever get caught," Tobey says. He's clearly quoting someone - a member of his merry band, no doubt.

"Is that what you believe?" Once upon a time, Dino'd have said nobody understood him as well as Tobey. He's not sure if that's still true.

"No," Tobey says.

"It's not evidence of anything, you know," Dino says, maybe because he dislikes the idea of Tobey misjudging him, misconstruing his intentions. "It's just a car, registered to my name. I let you drive it."

"Right. Congratulations on your divorce, by the way."

Dino can't tell if the words are meant to wound. _We'll settle this behind the wheel,_ Tobey told him, barely twenty-four hours ago, and yet here they are.

"It was for the best," he says. "I think you're the only person I ever loved, anyway."

Tobey stares at him silently, for a handful of seconds, before he turns his head away.

The police put them in different cars. They drive past the Elemento on their way to wherever it is they're going; it looks rather thoroughly wrecked.

 

Dino's not sure what he expects when he gets out of prison.

Not Tobey, he's pretty sure, leaning against a car that shows a stunning resemblance to a Ford Mustang. (It's not _the_ Ford Mustang, of course; that's simply not possible.)

"Thought I'd give you a ride home," Tobey says. "For old times' sake."

"It's a long ride from here to Mount Kizco," Dino says. Several days, at least.

Tobey shrugs. "Maybe I'll let you drive some of the way, then."

Dino gets in the car. There's nothing else he can do, nothing that needs saying that can't be said on the way, and nowhere else he needs or wants to be, anyway.


	2. alternate ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for a very long time (well, two weeks) this was the original last scene, replacing Tobey and Dino's meeting outside the prison. I scrapped it in the end, because it just didn't feel like it meshed well with the rest of the fic - it's an ensemble scene, where the rest of the fic is pretty much a two-man show.
> 
> still, I do like it. I liked these extra guys that were in the movie and did things, like strip naked and run around in an office building. so.
> 
> for your enjoyment, and for my uh peace of mind or whatever, here it is.
> 
> <3

And now here they are: both out of prison. Free.

Tobey's got his crew; Dino's got - well, his bank account isn't completely depleted yet, but it's a close thing. If there's a moral here, Dino's not sure what it is.

"No more turtlenecks?"

Dino chuckles a little. "Back to five-dollar shirts for a while, I think." He's not even sure if he still owns a car, if he can _afford_ to keep a car.

"I'm not - " Tobey hesitates. "I'm not okay with what you did to Pete. I'm never going to be okay with what you did to Pete."

Dino doesn't say he didn't do a thing to Pete. It's not an argument he's ever going to win, and he knows it. He might be too stubborn to give up on Tobey, but that doesn't mean he doesn't recognize a lost cause when he sees one.

"You just suck, man," Finn says.

There's several clips on YouTube where Finn is walking around in an office building, stark-naked. Dino isn't sure if he'll ever find out what _that's_ all about. 

"You're Ice," Benny says. "We're Maverick."

"Wasn't Maverick the one who got his best friend killed, though?" Joe asks. "And then, at the end, Mav and Ice kind of hooked up and became best buds and all that, so - I'm just saying."

"It was an accident," Finn says. "The getting his best friend killed part, not the hooking up, I mean."

"Yeah," Tobey says. "Pete's death was an accident. Me hooking up with Dino wasn't. A mistake, maybe, but not an accident."

There's a solid thirty seconds during which nobody says anything.

"You - and _him_?" Joe stares at Dino like he's never seen him before.

"Damn," Benny says. "And I thought _I_ had bad taste in hook-ups."

"Shut up, I've seen your girlfriend. She's gorgeous." Finn blinks, then turns to Tobey. "You had _gay sex_ and you didn't tell us? Any of us? We're your _friends_ , man."

"I may have it again," Tobey says. "At some point in the future."

"Provided he starts acting like a whole lot less of a jerk, right?" Benny asks.

"Yeah," Tobey says. "It's going to take some work."

Finn snorts. "Try: a lot."

"A ginormous lot," Joe says.

Dino's not sure if he's allowed to smile right now. "I'm not afraid of a challenge."


End file.
